A friend took me to a Korean league baseball game last week. It was great. Although the soccer game between North and South Korea was fun and the atmosphere was cool, this experience blew it out of the water. It was the opening weekend of the league and the atmosphere was electric. The stadium was jam-packed with fans even sitting on the steps. Luckily we got a couple of seats and had a good view of the game. 
I'd only been to one baseball game before and that was the Totonto Bluejays back in 1994, so I wasn't too knowlegable about the game. But my Korean buddy explained it pretty well without making me feel like too much of an idiot.
Each of the teams fans had a set of cheerleaders and a guy with a microphone leading chants. This, along with the thousands of 'thundersticks' (the yellow inflatable noisy things you see in the photo) ensured rapturous cheering all over the stadium.
Once I was familiar and confident with the rules and 'my team' and no longer afraid of booing or cheering at the wrong time (and getting lynched by the crowd), I tried to learn the chants. I first learned the most simple. It is the players name (eg: Ii-Yoo-Kyoo) followed by 'hit' (an-ta). But the chanting must be co-ordinated with certain clapping of the thundersticks and other movements, so it takes a while. And also you have to keep up with the changes in player because there's no point cheering for a guy who isn't up to bat. Oh, and you should also be careful not to get carried away with the mood of it all and start singing along when it's the other team up to bat, because you WILL find yourself being eyeballed by all those around you even though you are a foreigner who doesn't know any better.
Anyway, I got all this figured out by the seventh (of nine) innings, but just when I was confident, they changed to a new song (probably because my team was losing) and I gave up. Though all in all, it was a great and sunny day at the ballpark.
I'd only been to one baseball game before and that was the Totonto Bluejays back in 1994, so I wasn't too knowlegable about the game. But my Korean buddy explained it pretty well without making me feel like too much of an idiot.Each of the teams fans had a set of cheerleaders and a guy with a microphone leading chants. This, along with the thousands of 'thundersticks' (the yellow inflatable noisy things you see in the photo) ensured rapturous cheering all over the stadium.
Once I was familiar and confident with the rules and 'my team' and no longer afraid of booing or cheering at the wrong time (and getting lynched by the crowd), I tried to learn the chants. I first learned the most simple. It is the players name (eg: Ii-Yoo-Kyoo) followed by 'hit' (an-ta). But the chanting must be co-ordinated with certain clapping of the thundersticks and other movements, so it takes a while. And also you have to keep up with the changes in player because there's no point cheering for a guy who isn't up to bat. Oh, and you should also be careful not to get carried away with the mood of it all and start singing along when it's the other team up to bat, because you WILL find yourself being eyeballed by all those around you even though you are a foreigner who doesn't know any better.
Anyway, I got all this figured out by the seventh (of nine) innings, but just when I was confident, they changed to a new song (probably because my team was losing) and I gave up. Though all in all, it was a great and sunny day at the ballpark.
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